Mikey TV - Episode One: "The Memories of A Superhero"

Well, the first episode of Mikey TV is out!!! =) It's the first episode following the life of my cousin, singer and song writer, Mikey Bustos. =) Well, the episode has been out for almost a week now, actually. =P

This episode took a while for me to make because it was such a long interview and I had to cut it down to 10 minutes to fit on YouTube, and also had to include pictures and video clips to keep it interesting to watch (and to prove that what he claims was true). I showed it to my family today, and they freaked out at how many famous people he's actually met in the Philippines (I didn't realize just how famous until my family watched the episode). I guess they now know who's famous in the Philippines because they recently bought the Philippine Channel on Rogers cable TV. LoL. =)

This logo I spent quite a bit of time designing. It may look simple, but I've applied the "Golden Ratio" (1.618) to the design in so many ways (from the height between the "M" and the "ikey", to the distance between the "Mikey" and "TV", to the ratio of white to blue, etc.). If you don't know what the Golden Ratio is, look it up. =) You'll find something very interesting with that ratio. =)

But yeah, this is the first installment of Mikey TV. The episode name is a play on words, as it plays on the title of his latest album "Memoirs of A Superhero". You can download his album here. My family thought the title of the episode was a mistake. Haha. It's because the episode is a look back at the last 6 years (hence, "Memories") of what my cousin has accomplished so far. =)

I'm glad to be a part of all of this, and so happy to see my cousin achieving all of his dreams. =) We grew up together and I've always known him to be such a creative and intellectual individual. I'm very proud of him! =)

The video is also embedded on a website, which is still under construction -- www.MikeyTV.com.

Oh, and for some reason, on YouTube the counter is stuck at 301 views. Very strange. Apparently a common glitch. I hope they find a workaround soon...

Anyway, now for the episode of Mikey TV. Don't forget to rate, comment, favourite, subscribe, etc... (if you want to) =) Thanks, and enjoy! =]



- The Temporal Guardian -

Chris Brown's Apology

Hey folks,

Looks like Chris Brown finally publicly apologized about the incident with Rihanna... 5 months later. Don't know what to say about this one. I guess it's up to you to decide whether or not he means it, and/or if he deserves to be forgiven. Heck, he's even READING his apology. Who knows, maybe he didn't even write it...



- The Temporal Guardian -

ReBoot

Hey everyone,

I'd like to post a link my friend Mike Derick has shown me.

Him and I used to be really big fans of this show called ReBoot. It holds the title for being the FIRST completely computer-generated TV show in the world; and best of all - it's Canadian. It was created by a company called Mainframe Entertainment (now called Rainmaker Animation) back in 1994.

Sadly the show ended only after 4 seasons, with the fourth being somewhat of a letdown, as it seemed their budget was limited as the season was only 8 episodes (technically two movies, each split up into 4 episodes).

Mainframe Entertainment went on to create other shows (Shadow Raiders / War Planets and Beasties / Beast Wars: Transformers to name a couple), but none were to make such an impact on me as ReBoot had. Although I must admit, Beast Wars was still an entertaining show to watch; and the reason for the double-naming is because YTV deemed it too "violent" to have "wars" in the title of the show. So, Beast Wars was called Beasties, and War Planets was called Shadow Raiders.

ReBoot was by far the most creative and original series I have ever seen as a kid (until I came across the show Firefly, which sadly also got cancelled after only half a season. A movie called, Serenity, was made to finish the series due to the amazing DVD sales of the half season! It's also now available on Blu-ray.). ReBoot had great character development, creative concepts, original ideas, and witty humour by the likes I've never seen as a kid.

This was the first picture of ReBoot I've ever seen. It was on the front cover of TVGuide back in 1994. I remember tearing off that front cover and counting down the days to episode one of this show. I wonder if I still have that picture...

But enough delay... I present to you the link -- http://reboot.com

With an ominous countdown timer (8 days, 18 hours, 8 minutes, and counting, as of this post) , the single web page comes with nothing but a simple warning - "Incoming Game." I almost shat my pants when I saw the page! Hahaha!

I can tell you now, I haven't been this excited since the countdown to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64. Man, oh man. I counted down each day by labelling my school pencil case with a countdown. Haha.

Anyway, the only thing that's keeping me grounded with this is the fact that at Anime North 2009 in Toronto, I met one of the original animators of the show. He was there promoting his book called "The Art of ReBoot". I didn't have any cash on me at the time so I couldn't purachse a copy. I wanted to buy it and have him sign it. It's available online now. You can purchase the book here.

I asked him what he thought about the new revamp of ReBoot. He said that him and the original creators of the show weren't too happy with the direction the revamp of ReBoot was going, because they themselves had their own "vision" as to what the show was going to turn out to be. That was somewhat disappointing to hear. I wish the original Mainframe Entertainment had the creative freedom to do whatever they wanted with the show. Sadly, it was never meant to be.

Some of the main characters from season one and two. Ah, the memories...

I am probably one of the biggest fans of ReBoot, next to Mike Dedrick. I was even one of the people who wrote the information you now see on the Wikipedia page for the show. And when YTV used to air ReBoot, I had to email them once to make corrections to their website information on the show. LoL.

But yes, Mike and I are probably two of the biggest ReBoot fans on the planet. Mike does freelance 3D animation, and I can tell you that ReBoot was probably one of the reasons why he got into 3D animation in the first place.

Me? ReBoot was probably one of the reasons why I got so involved in computers, everything from software programming to hardware peripherals to building my own computers. As I grew up, I've become known as the guy who can fix your computer and bring it back from death. LoL.

When we were first introduced to the grown up Enzo Matrix and AndrAIa, I was so taken aback at how cool and badass Matrix had become I could hardly contain myself. XD LoL!

ReBoot was also one of the reasons why I got into film-making, as I just loved the character development and interaction, as well as the witty humour. An online series I'm working on, called "Temporal Guardian", has a lot of influences and little "easter egg tributes" to ReBoot within it. And now you know why I call my blog "The Temporal Guardian", and also why the word "Guardian" was used in my online series - Because the show ReBoot had Guardians in it, who were protectors over the systems.

I really wish the entire ReBoot series was out on DVD/Blu-ray. It's such a shame that Seasons One and Two were never released on DVD. Only Season III became available on DVD. You can purchase them via these links:

Reboot - Season III, Vol. 1
ReBoot - Season III, Vol. 2 - The Net
Reboot - Season III, Vol. 3: The Web
Reboot - Season III, Vol. 4: The Viral Wars

On a side-note, a couple of years ago, I made friends with another big ReBoot fan, Lester Calleja, who also shares another interest with me - 'film-making'. I showed him the link and he's equally as excited as I am.

I can't wait to see what happens in 8 days. Whatever it is, I sure hope it's good news...

"Stay Frosty!"

- The Temporal Guardian -

The Happy Drinking Bird

Hey folks, just a quick post about this nifty little novelty item I bought a few months ago and only decided to try it out today. LoL. I saw the box and instantly had the urge to try it out, and so I did. Over 14 hours later it's still going! It will keep going as long as there is water in the glass for it to tip into.

And there it goes!

The perpetual-motion of the Drinking Bird is a combination of the water evaporating from the bird's head (effectively cooling it down), pressure inside the tube due to the temperature change, and the use of gravity. Pretty cool. =) The birds with the red fluid are more traditional, but fade in sunlight easily. The blue (being my favourite colour and the actual reason why I chose it) is less prone to fading.

Many of you have probably seen it first on an episode of The Simpsons, when Homer used it to continually press the "Y" key (for "Yes") on his work-at-home computer. The computer controlled the necessary venting of toxic fumes for the Springfield nuclear power plant. Homer used the Drinking Bird so that he no longer had to stay seated at the computer to monitor the pressure, since all he had to do was keep pressing "Y" to vent the gas when the pressure became too high. He then neglects to check on the bird and it eventually falls over, creating a dangerous critical-pressure state at the nuclear power plant. LoL.

Personally, the first time I remember seeing it was long before The Simpsons, on an episode of Loony Tunes. Tweety Bird sees it drinking water and, thinking it's a real bird, joins it in the "water drinking". Tweety also took the nodding movements of the Drinking Bird as conversational nodding. Haha. I found that hilarious as a kid. =]

I don't know what I find fascinating about such a simple little thing, but I sometimes find myself mesmerized by it's hypnotic back-and-forth rocking motion and it's endless thirst for water, and catch myself watching it for a couple of minutes or so. LOL.

Well, it's best that you all know that most of the Drinking Birds contain Methylene Chloride (also known as Dichloromethane). This is a chemical used in paint stripper liquid and will badly damage paintwork and most plastics. So be wary of where you place it, and be careful not to let young children or pets play near it!

You can get your very own magical Drinking Bird at this website.

The drinking bird was invented by Miles V. Sullivan in 1945 and patented in 1946. He was a Ph.D. inventor-scientist at Bell labs in Murray Hill, NJ, USA.

Until Next Time,
- The Temporal Guardian -

Mikey Bustos

Hey everyone! Just thought I'd write up another quick blog post while I take a small break from working on my cousin's online videoblog series called MikeyTV, of which I am the director. I figure I should do a blog about him before I finish the first episode so that I can blog about the episode later. Haha. It's taking me a while to do the first episode, with part of the reason being that I need to create certain effects and graphics that the show will be needing overall, so I have to get that done first. After the first episode is done, every episode after that should take less and less time.

My cousin's name is Mikey Bustos and was on Canadian Idol season one. He made it to the top eight finalists. And yes, that means he is on the Canadian Idol "Greatest Moments" CD, which went Gold in sales. You can purchase the CD here if you're interested.

As of recent, he had just released a full length album called "Memoirs of A Superhero", which is in HMV stores Canada wide and also available for download on iTunes and Amazon.com. You can also hear his latest single, "If It Feels Good Then We Should", playing on rotation on radio stations all across North America, which is really exciting! I want him to do well and become more well known. His song lyrics have lots of meaning behind them, and he puts a lot of thought into each song. My favourite song of his has got to be "Everytime My Heart Beats." Beautiful song! =)

He's accomplished so much in so little time. He's toured all over North America and has even toured overseas in The Philippines. He was interviewed and performed on big Filipino shows like SOP, StarTalk, and Eat Bulaga, and was also a special guest on Philippine Idol. Oh, and not to mention that he was the opening act for The Pussycat Dolls as well as Christina Aguilera!!!

My cousin, Mikey Bustos, with Pussycat Doll member Melody Thornton.

I'm very proud to be his cousin and to have known him growing up. He's very smart and intelligent and creative. We used to write stories together and come up with poems and songs. I really loved his creative side and I'm glad that now he is putting that passion to great use with his song writing. He loves to entertain and I personally feel that singing for the world really is his destiny.

The first episode of MikeyTV should be done soon, within a week's time. I will post up the link to the first episode as soon as it is done!

Cheers!

- The Temporal Guardian -